I spent five of the happiest years of my life in Guyuan. No, correct
that. Four of the happiest years. The first year
was hard. I suffered from culture-shock (big-time), stomach complaints, dry
skin (Guyuan has to be one of the driest places under the sun), loneliness,
isolation, and a sense of being a square peg in a round hole; I missed England
and what was 'normal' for me. I missed my family. I missed the familiar. It was
a tough time. Although I met such marvelous people in Guyuan, I didn't feel
able to benefit from it at first. To be honest, I wondered if I'd made a huge
mistake.

But I'm stubborn – and proud. I was also driven by a sense of
duty. I'd signed up for two years and this was a professional commitment with
VSO, who had told us that our organisation pays out 13,000 pounds for each
volunteer. And this was a charity. I couldn't just give up. It wouldn't have
been fair. And I'll tell you, I'm SO glad I stuck with it. I went on to have
those four golden years and learnt more than I could ever have thought
possible. VSO says that volunteers often gain more than they give and in my
case that's certainly true.

So, a little about the work in those five years. In the first year
my dean, Tian Fengjun, scheduled me to teach Oral English. I met him on a brisk
Autumn day in 2001, and after only a few minutes, he had agreed to assign me
some Teaching Methodology as well. This was a strength I wanted to develop and
he could not have been more accommodating. His open-minded and enthusiastic
responses to suggestions, as well as negotiation of ideas, plans and practices,
were to become a hallmark of our collaboration throughout the five years.
During the second term, I started going to his office regularly, a couple of
times a week, just to chat. We'd sit together over tea and a cigarette and put
the world to rights. Always I went away from those meetings feeling energized.
I realized I was in the hands of a brilliant manager, and started to count my
lucky stars at being based in Guyuan. That placement is lucky enough to have
secured two American volunteers and after my first two years, a further VSO
volunteer as well. I have therefore been privileged to work as well with
wonderful international professionals during my placement.

After the first year I taught mostly Teaching Methodology and also
some British and American Literature, which I thoroughly enjoyed. My students
– and this is a typical experience in China – were so keen and bright
and uniformly pleasant. In addition, I went to Dean Tian to discuss a possible
model of in-service and pre-service teacher-training – Action Research
for use with staff and students. He asked me to give him as much material as
possible and then a few days later, called a meeting with staff. This was to be
a turning point for my placement. Action Research, over the next four years,
became the principle method of staff development, and in 2003, Dean Tian, in
conjunction with the Ningxia Education Committee opened China's Experimental
Centre for Educational Action Research in Foreign Languages Teaching
(CECEARFLT) – see www.nxtu.com.cn
and www.bath.ac.uk~edsajw/moira.shtml
for details of the work). Professor Jean McNiff, a world-leader in Educational
Action Research, was present at the inauguration. Guyuan now had something
unique in the world – an Action Research Centre specifically devoted to
the study of improvements in the teaching of English under China's New
Curriculum. The College (as it was then, it's now a university) received
letters of congratulation from the then Education Governor of Ningxia, an event
unprecedented in the college's history, and started to gain a national and
international reputation.

Most of my professional time was then spent on in-house in-service
training, additionally with a Hui (Moslem) middle school in a neighbouring
county where fourteen English teachers are now using AR methodology to improve
their teaching of the New Curriculum. This project is now being supervised by
members of the AR Centre at Guyuan. In 2004, we had our first international
conference with VSO sponsorship. Jean McNiff and Jack Whitehead (another
world-leader in Action Research), plus volunteers and partners from Ningxia and
Gansu, came to discuss, amongst other things, educational research and the New
Curriculum. One of the most important findings was the significance to
educational development of sustainability.

One of VSO's aims in China is for volunteers to share skills and
then leave – putting it crudely! Promoting sustainable development is a
VSO China goal, and I realized after my fourth year the time should soon come
for me to leave. If the processes of staff-development that Tian Fengjun, and
Li Peidong, Liu Xia, Ma Xiaoxia (colleagues in the department/AR Centre) and
others had started were healthy and relevant, then my direct presence shouldn't
be necessary anymore. So, with a heavy heart I started making plans to leave
after my fifth year. Once I had firmly made my decision to leave, Jean McNiff
and Jack Whitehead turned up for two weeks and during that time, Jean suggested
her institution (St. Mary's University College) and its award-bearing University
(in Surrey UK) might accept me as a visiting tutor, giving me the power to
supervise some colleagues from the department to do their doctorates in
educational Action Research!

Thus, after six months of working in the office in Beijing as a
programme office-based volunteer, I am going to return to Guyuan, taking up a
post as lifelong professor of educational research at Ningxia Teachers
University. I am looking forward to it so much and now we are in the process of
finding sponsorship.

To summarise. My volunteering years have been blessed by excellent
management (Tian Fengjun), as well as the professionality and kindness of
colleagues and friends (Li Peidong, Ma Xiaoxia, Liu Xia, Ma Hong, Liu Hui
– and so many more – too many to mention, but you're not
forgotten!). I've also been touched by the kindnesses of the Guyuan people
themselves, in particular, the practical and warmhearted friendship of my
dearest friend in Guyuan, Ma Zimei. I have been so lucky to get to know
inspiring people inside and outside my workplace, and to have the privilege of
being accepted as a Guyuanese. Indeed, I have insisted on it. Latterly, when
people in the street looked at me and pointed: 'Ah, it's the laowai
(foreigner)', I would turn on them and say, indignantly, 'no I'm not a foreigner. I'm a Guyuan person! And proud of it!'

I think the strongest proof of my belief in the value of what I have
experienced in the last five years as a volunteer is shown by the fact that I
want to go back again.